Apocrisarius

(1,478 words)

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The apocrisiarius (lit. “answerer”) was the point of contact among the four patriarchates of Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, and the headquarters of the imperial church in Constantinople. Extant from the 5th century CE, the office was institutionalized in law under Justinian Ia (527–565 CE). The apocrisiarius could be a cleric functioning as the diplomatic representative or legate of a bishop of the patriarch to the Byzantine imperial court, or his permanent representative resident in another see …